Finding the Invisible in a Time of Flu

Using designated emergency funding, we set out to vaccinate our county's population against H1N1. Besides medical settings, our program had numerous phases of outreach. One phase involved reaching the “invisible population.” This included bringing vaccination PODs to homeless shelters, soup kitchens, day-laborers awaiting work, and even homeless people living in the woods. We accomplished this with collaboration of other county agencies. Our endeavor was met with great appreciation, and resulted in vaccination of many people who otherwise would be unprotected. We describe our collaboration, methods, successes and failures during this time of crisis. Our numeric results show the significance of our work, which may be a model for future pandemics.